Explosive.



O. VGN SCHROETTER.-

EXPLOSIVE.

APPLIOATION FILED MAY 9, 1907.

laizeute Bec. 31908,

OTTO VON SCHROETTEIt, OF KRUPPAMHLE, UPPER SILESIA, GERMANY.

EXPLOSIVE Specification of Letters Patent. Apliicaaon mea may e, i907. 'seriai No. 372,686.

. Patented Dec. 29, 1968.

To all whom tmay concern:

Be it known that I, OTTO FREIHERR voN SoHRon'r'rnR, a subject of the King of Prusi sia, residing at Kruppamhle, Upper Silesia, German Empire, have invented a certain new and Improved Explosive, of which the following is a specification.

When gunpowder and its substitutes, as

well asmany other explosives can be hiredv by direct ignition, the so-called high eXplosives, like guncotton andinitroglycerin cannot be fired directly. -1 Gun-cotton, nitroglyci erin, dynamite,picric acid and the like, re-

quire mercurio fulminate as a detonator. Gun-cotton, however, can only be detonated by a mercurio fulminatecap when it is dry, not when it is moist throughout. Much less 1 can the detonation be effected by means or" other explosives; even such explosive substances as nitroglycerin, dynamite, gelatin- Adynamite and the like fail when the guncotton charge is saturated with water.

The discovery by Brown that wet charges could be detonated by means of dry gun-l cotton was at that time of far reaching importance for the applicability of gun-cotton, particularly for purposes of war.

The drawing represents a side view, partly in section, of my improved explosive.

According to the present invention, wet gun-cotton can be detonated in any quantity, with certainty and far more advantageously than by -means of dry gun-cotton, by nitro- Subcompounds of thel aromatic series.

'- stances of this kind prove particularly suitable for conveying the detonation from the Cap to the wet charge of gun-cotton not only with absolute certainty but with enhanced' effect. -The action of a wet gun cotton charge can be considerably heightened by Suitable selection of the agent for transferring the detonation. A. torpedo charge a, of wet gun cotton is recessed to contain an intermediate charge Il), of a nitro compound of the aromatic series, such as hexanitrodiphenylamin, trinitrotoluol, etc., in which the mercurio fulminate cap c, is embedded. Thus the cap detonates the wet gun cotton through the intermediate charge ofv the nitro compound.

A further advantage in practice attends the transference of the detonation by one of the aforesaid materials instead of by dr gun-cetton,.in that these materials are e An explosive consisting of a charge ot' wet` gun cotton, a fulminate, and a detonating charge of a nitro compound of the aromatic series intermediate the wet gun cotton and fulminate, substantially as speciiied.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto signed my name in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

FRANTZ KA'rz, ERNST BLEiscH. 

